In the UK, we primarily heat our homes using our own, individual boilers. In Europe, there’s a lot more district heating, where a central boiler or heat pump provides heat to multiple properties. It’s a far more efficient solution that almost always lowers carbon emissions. It’s something we need to see a lot more of in this country.
So it’s somewhere between depressing and shocking to learn that the few home owners and renters in the UK who have had the opportunity to connect to a district heating scheme are being hammered with energy costs far and above the budget-busting rises the rest of us are facing. Why? Because the government treats district and communal schemes as commercial rather than residential operations; therefore even the limited protection of the residential price cap does not apply.
The result is that homeowners and renters in these buildings are seeing their electricity costs jump as much as 10-fold. We need government to sort this out as fast as possible - both for the sake of residents already caught up in this nightmare and to ensure we don’t kill off the nascent market for schemes that will help us get to net zero.
Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash
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